Ring Ring

24-bit digital remaster with new liner notes, complete lyrics and bonus tracks: 'Merry Go Round', 'Santa Rosa' and 'Ring Ring' (Swedish Version).

Not issued in the U.S. until an early-'90s rerelease program, Abba's first album points toward the world-dominating pop of their later years. While the title cut has some vroom, others call for fine-tuning. The New Seekers-style anthem "People Need Love" offers the bizarre insistence that "People need love to make a good living"--at what?--and "Nina Pretty Ballerina" could be a pop song for toddlers. Not a bad thing, but not quite "Dancing Queen." And no, "Me and Bobby and Bobby's Brother" isn't a Springsteenian saga of felonious misadventure, but a jingling remembrance of playground days. The 24-bit remastered sound of this edition (which includes a Swedish version of "Ring Ring" among its three bonus tracks) does suggest the care Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus were already taking with production. Their discs, however, would soon achieve the truly Abba-esque. --Rickey Wright